The Syrian secret
Friday September 21, 2007
Categories: War
An ex-Army friend writes this morning with deep unease about the recent event in which Israeli jets attacked a purported Syrian nuke site. He wonders if it's connected to this week's assassination of a Christian parliamentarian in Lebanon. We're trying...
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Advertisement
Advertisement
Search This Blog
Recent Posts
About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
Subscribe
Archives
Blogs Worth Reading
- Front Porch Republic
- The American Conservative
- Patrick Deneen
- Conventional Folly
- The American Scene
- First Things
- Andrew Sullivan
- The Plank
- Eunomia
- Get Religion
- Postmodern Conservative
- Alex Massie
- The Corner
- Contentions
- Sharon Astyk
- Barry Ritholtz
- The Oil Drum
- Mere Comments
- First Principles (ISI)
- Brian Kaller
Top Features
- Seven Patron Saints for Healing and Comfort
- 10 Law of Attraction Lessons in Film
- Famous Scientology Couples
- Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
- A Prayer for Children Going to School
- Accidental Blessings
- Inspiring Barack Obama Inauguration Quotes
- Don t Take Away My Coffee
- Other People s Beds
- Top 10 Movies About Love
The story I heard was that Israeli jets attacked a terrorist training site in Syria implicated in smuggling fighters and materiel into Iraq so as to, in the process, test Russian-made Syrian AA capabilities deployed by Iran as well, in the event an air incursion into Iran is greenlighted. Supposedly, the Israeli jets won and the Russian-made AA failed the test.
The most unnerving thing about it is how quiet the Syrians have been since. While plausible, I would think a test of air defenses/terror camp strike would have had the Syrians screaming to all and sundry.
One thing I forgot: the report that the Turkish military lent a hand to the Israelis. Not shocking, given the military ties, but that suggests the issue was of mutual concern.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411398606&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
"I would think a test of air defenses/terror camp strike would have had the Syrians screaming to all and sundry."
I would, too, had they downed a jet, but publicizing the opposite would be a revelation of defensive nakedness.
Beats me. The speculation is all over the map. See, e.g.:
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-on-osirak-ii.html
I wonder if nukes or WMDs were involved whatsoever.
The history of the past few years has been all about intelligence failures. Rampant speculation got us in trouble during Afghanistan and later in Iraq. Considering the number of anonymous sources and speculative think-tankers everyone's using as sources, I think its better to just sit and watch than to get excited about a non-existent Syrian nuclear program.
DU
Brad:
That's a good point.
This business with Syria is getting a bit unnerving. Both Israel and Syria are being very quiet about what really happened. I have also seen a report at
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2666
(I haven't seen it validated anywhere else) which suggests that there was some sort of accident at a Syrian chemical weapons factory which killed 15 Syrian officers and "several dozen" Iranian engineers.
Has anyone seen the Jane's Defense Weekly report, or any other source, confirming this?
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.